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Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

OOCI apologise greatly for the delay with this thread. I've been incredibly slow with this PC recently!It was the strangest ever chit-chat she'd ever encountered, and Karin was mostly silent as the woman introduced herself. She noticed that Orin was a little way behind, and hoped he could catch up to them. On the other hand, she was much more comfortable dealing with people one on one, so perhaps it was for the better that he was slightly behind at that moment. "Aah, hello Ratha. Uh, no you're not interrupting anything." Karin wondered for a moment exactly what the woman thought she might be interrupting, and then promptly blushed when she realised. "I was just helping him to swim, after he nearly drowned."

There had been a time that she would have retreated into herself at this rather unusual meeting, but times had changed and whether she knew it or not, she was more confident than ever before. It helped, really, that she was occupying the water. Here, she was in control. So with that, she nodded forwards to the strange woman and smoothed her hair away from her face, before letting her know silently that she'd be right back. Moving from treading water to swimming was a welcome change, and she quickly flipped her feet and pulled her arms in a forward stroke, swimming towards Orin.

"How're you doing? You seem to be floating well enough, so I don't suppose you normally drown easily. I guess it must've been the shock... Do you know any swimming strokes, like forward stroke or breast stroke? If not, swim in whatever way you know to where I just got to. It's not so deep. I can probably drag you to the shore again if you start to fall underwater again."

Teaching felt uncomfortable, and she quickly fell silent again as she swam back up to the woman, wondering whether she'd say anything of why she had been staring. Karin did smile internally though, at the amount of people in the water. It was a welcome change, in a way, to the mostly silent beaches around Alvadas, only inhabited by fishermen and the occasional crazy. Although hopefully she could finish her swim alone.

10/7/17- All my threads are marked [open] and as such are open to all.

This random woman who had just shown up and had been watching them without announcing herself was odd, although she seemed friendly enough. Admittedly, nothing about this situation was normal. Or maybe it was -- Orin didn’t really know how individuals typically handled themselves in the water. Still, he somehow couldn’t imagine all this conversation and observation to be a common occurrence while swimming. After all, his arms and legs were already starting to grow weary, and he admittedly hadn’t done that much work yet. But if all swimming was this strenuous, the probability that people had energy left for talking was slim to none. Still, Karin and this other woman, Ratha, didn’t seem to be struggling in the slightest, which made Orin slightly ashamed of his weakness. Then again, recklessness wasn’t really in his nature, at least at most times, and so he wasn’t going to thrust himself out into the bay just to prove a point.

Smiling gently at Ratha, Orin wracked his brain for something to say. Still clinging to the dock and hoping that he wasn’t making a mistake here, Orin quipped, ”No interruptions, just suspension. Get it? Because we’re in water?” Realizing how lame that sounded, Orin let his voice trail off, ”...nevermind. I’m Orin Fenix, it’s nice to meet you Ratha.” Glancing at Karin to see how she was handling this new development, Orin realized just how difficult it was to make accurate observations while holding oneself out of the water. Also, when he spoke, he had a bad habit of stopping his leg motions, which would probably prove fatal if he wasn’t holding himself out of the water some other way. Resolving to work harder on multitasking, or, at least, mastering basic tasks so they become second nature and didn’t require his whole attention, Orin decided to let Karin handle the newcomer. ”Well, I’m just trying to stay afloat here. If Karin is fine with it, I have no problem with you sticking around.” After all, if Karin was his teacher, she should be the one in control of the situation.

Karin, by this point, had come back to him and had complimented Orin’s ability to float. Orin laughed at that ”Yeah, right. I bet toddler could do as much as I am right now.” He sobered up quickly when Karin mentioned different strokes. While he had noticed that she moved her body in different ways, he hadn’t realized that there was that much purpose behind all of it. For instance, while he’d noticed the distinct movements she used while treading water as opposed to moving smoothly through it, it hadn’t registered that there were such specific techniques to all of this. ”Ah, no, never learned anything about strokes. They seem….useful to know, though.”

By this time, though, Karin had suggested that Orin attempt to swim out to where she just was, and then return. The thought filled him with fear and for an instant he was transported back to the moment where he thought water was going to fill his mouth and throat. He gulped, audibly, but attempted to put on a brave face. ”Well, teach, if you think I’m ready,” he said gamely, although it was clear that his fear showed. Still, he trusted Karin’s belief that she could manage to drag him to shore if necessary, and so, taking a leap of faith, he pushed off from the docks.

Instantly, he started sinking, and so he started kicking his legs as rapidly as possible. Remembering how Karin had alternated his arms while lying flat in the water as she reached him, Orin leaned forward, trying to keep his head out of the water all the while. It dipped under a few times, but he managed to get a few strokes of his arms in, kicking all the while. It was graceful, pretty, or coordinated, but it sort of got the job done, and Orin eventually reached the point where he thought he had seen Karin get to. Now, though, was the hard part. He had no idea how to turn around, and thought, with some degree of fear, that he probably should have discussed it with Karin before he threw himself in the deep end. Managing barely to get himself upright, Orin sort of flailed his arms in the same direction until he was vaguely pointed in the correct direction. Falling forward again, he clumsily tried the alternating arms and legs motion, and eventually, got back to the docks. Managing one last surge of strength he burst out of the water, grabbed the docks, and pulled himself to safety.

Every part of his body felt like it was on fire, which was ironic, given that he’d just been underwater. Still Orin couldn’t help but grin like a fool. As he beamed down at Karin, he jubilantly shouted, ”I did it! Sort of! Enough at least! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Bringing his voice down to a more reasonable volume, he asked, ruefully, ”How much of an idiot did I look like just now?”